Cocoa butter is a widely used and much appreciated fat composition produced from cocoa beans. Cocoa butter is used for its flavor and texture properties in a variety of edible products, particularly in combination with sugars and other ingredients to make chocolate. The desirability of the characteristic cocoa butter flavor and texture have long assured a strong demand for cocoa butter and products which are made from cocoa butter. The worldwide cocoa bean supply, however, suffers from significant variability, due to constant and often unpredictable changes in the ability of different cocoa bean supplying regions to deliver enough beans at a consistent price and quality to meet the demand.
The uncertain availability of cocoa beans and the associated fluctuations in price have led to much effort to formulate alternative fat compositions which can be used in place of or in conjunction with natural cocoa butter. These alternative fats are generally classified into three types, based on their chemical composition and compatibility with cocoa butter. Cocoa butter equivalents (CBE) are fats which have chemical and physical properties compatible with cocoa butter, and can be used to supplement cocoa butter in confectionery products. Cocoa butter substitutes (CBS) are generally lauric fats which are incompatible with cocoa butter. Cocoa butter replacers (CBR) are partially compatible with cocoa butter. CBRs are primarily non-lauric fats which have properties intermediate those of CBEs and CBSs, and are sometimes referred to as non-lauric cocoa butter substitutes. Detailed discussions of these different types of alternative fats can be found in a variety of sources; see, for example, Traitler, H. et al., Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society, 62(2), 417-21 (1985); Shukla, V., in Developments in Oils and Fats, 66-94 (1995); Berger, K., Food Technology, 40(9), 72-79 (1986), the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Among these three principal types of alternative fats, cocoa butter equivalents are relatively more expensive, while cocoa butter substitutes are relatively less expensive. Typically, cocoa butter substitutes cost only one-third to one-fourth as much as cocoa butter, making products which use these alternative fats economically especially attractive to consumers.
One particular area in which cocoa butter substitutes are widely used is in compound coatings for confectionery products. In fact, most of the compound coatings now used in commercial confectionery are made of these cocoa butter substitutes. Cocoa butter substitutes are often characterized as "lauric" or "non-lauric", depending on the chemical nature of the component fats. Most lauric cocoa butter substitutes are based on palm kernel oils. Oil industry suppliers subject palm kernel oils to several processing and modifying steps, such as fractionation, hydrogenation and interesterification, and these fractions and derivatives are further blended together in various proportions to produce cocoa butter substitutes with different properties. Examples of commercial suppliers of these fats are Fuji Vegetable Oil Inc., Aarhus Inc., and Loders and Croklaan. These various fats show differences in flavor, texture, bloom stability and processing characteristics.
Cocoa butter is particularly desirable in part because of its unusual melting characteristics. Cocoa butter is a solid at temperatures close to room temperature, but rapidly melts at body temperatures. Thus, unlike most oils or fats, cocoa butter maintains its solid shape at room temperature, around 20.degree. C., but quickly melts as it is warmed in the mouth to temperatures above 30.degree. C. As a result, cocoa butter has a unique and desirable texture and feel in the mouth, which contribute to its wide demand.
Recognizing that the melting characteristics of cocoa butter are desirable, much work has been done to mimic these melting characteristics in substitute fat compositions. Thus, oils can be chemically modified, such as by hydrogenation or interesterification, to modify their melting characteristics and hence increase their similarity to cocoa butter.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,527 to Galenkamp et al. describes lauric fats which are selectively hydrogenated to provide a trans acid content of at least 25%. These modified fats reportedly show melting and other characteristics resembling those of coconut stearin, a high quality cocoa butter substitute.
Alternatively, oils can be chemically modified so that their triglyceride composition more closely matches that of cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is composed largely of 1,3-disaturated-2-unsaturated triglycerides. Thus, a number of U.S. patents attempt to provide cocoa butter substitutes by controlling the triglyceride composition of the component fats. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,109 to Tanaka et al. discloses cocoa butter substitute compositions containing at least 80% 1,3-disaturated-2-oleoyl glycerols which are up to 10% 1,3-dipalmitoyl-2-oleoyl glycerol, 25-45% 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-3-stearoyl glycerol, and 45-70% 1,3-distearoyl-2-oleoyl glycerol.
Other workers have tried to provide cocoa butter substitutes by blending different oils to produce an oil composition with the desired properties. U.S. Pat. No. 4,430,350 to Tressler describes coatings for frozen confections containing an oil blend which can include palm kernel oil. The oil blend contains an interesterified mixture of 75-90% lauric acid or oil (including palm kernel oil) and 10-25% non-lauric oil. Coatings made with these oil blends reportedly show good brittleness, flavor and mouth-feel properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,514 to Maruzeni et al. discloses a cocoa butter substitute composition obtained by removing as completely as possible the high melting point fraction of a palm oil. The composition thus contains a medium melting point palm oil fraction which, because of the lack of a high melting point component, shows very sharp melting characteristics.
None of these references, however, provides an oil blend of palm kernel oil, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, palm kernel stearin and hydrogenated palm kernel stearin, which is suitable for use as a cocoa butter substitute, well-characterized, and possesses the flavor and texture release properties of cocoa butter.